Halloween time in Disneyland

Yes, I know it's January, but I'm needing a bit of a Disney-fix, if you will.  So I decided to write up about my visit to Disneyland back in October of 2010. My sister was doing the DCP at the time, so we met up with her after her Disney U class and got into the park for a halfday of sightseeing in Disney's California Adventure. We picked up tickets for that nights Mickey's Halloween Party (not to be confused with Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, which only takes place in WDW. As far as I can tell, there isn't much difference.  I've never been to the WDW party, but at DL we had the dance party with the green soldiers and there were like three parades).  These special nights are the only time that adults are allowed in the park while in costume.  Children under 10 may be in costume any day, but not so for adults. The park closes at 6:30 for regular ticket holders.  Mickey's HP ticket holders can show up in costume starting around 3pm, and you receive a special wristband. The park is open til midnight for the special ticket holders, and the park really feels empty. 

Upon entering Disneyland, the first thing you notice (besides the decorations) is that the music has changed to the soundtrack of "Nightmare Before Christmas!"  It was great to hear this, and to walk through the park singing along.  Even my parent's, who have never seen the movie before, enjoyed the music.  If you go during the month of October, make sure to go at night because Disney reverts back to it's regular music during the day.

Mainstreet is amazing! There are special spotlights that project ghosts on the ground and up to the buildings.

As you can see, despite what I said earlier that the park feels empty, there are definitely people who are in the park with you. :)  However we only had a five minute wait for Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy. 

The castle was constantly changing colors throughout the night.  This is one of the better photo's that I have.  Just on the other side of the castle was where the candy stations started.  Upon entering we were given small bags, and there were quite a few candy stations throughout the park.  It took some work to find them, but once we did, we filled up our bags pretty quickly. 

This is the back of the train station as we were making our way out of the park at the end of the night.  The spiderwebs were amazing!! We went back the next day for a full day in Disneyland.

 

One of the best things about Halloween time is that they bring out all the Disney villains and have an official photo stage set up basically in front of It's a Small World.  They have three villains out at a time for about 45 minutes to an hour.  I saw Ratcliffe, The Queen of Hearts, Cruella, The Evil Queen from Snow White, The Evil Stepmother and stepsisters, the cat from Pinnochio (I think?). I only had photo's with the first three, and this was my favorite photo.   They also had Captain Jack Sparrow out by the pirate ship in Liberty Square that night, as well as Jack Skellington and Sally by the train station, also in Liberty Square, and we found them during the day.

 

And the ending photo, the Pumpkin King!  I love this photo, I think it's framed great!  The entire Haunted Mansion is completely done over in the style of Nightmare Before Christmas.  The Disney Imagineers have truly outdone themselves  Even the pictures in the elevator have been changed! If I ever join youtube, I'll post the video I took.

25 days to go!